Product Description

Not having the mega-multi-million sales of RUMOURS allows this record greater credibility--the listener has the choice of discovering it. A worthy album, late in their career, many million miles away from the monster Peter Green created. It showed a much happier and cleaner Fleetwood Mac, having put much of their emotional baggage in the cupboard. Some of their strongest material is found here, Lindsey Buckingham's ambitious "Big Love", Christine's beautiful "Everywhere" andclose second "Little Lies". Reappraising this record gives you a further chance to work out whether a rude word is repeated throughout "Family Man".

Track Listing

1. Big Love
2. Seven Wonders
3. Everywhere
4. Caroline
5. Tango in the Night
6. Mystfied
7. Little Lies
8. Family Man
9. Welcome to the Room...Sara
10. Isn't It Midnight
11. When I See You Again
12. You and I, Pt. II

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3157 in Music
• Released on: 1987-04-13
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Thanks to the long shadow cast by the group's blockbuster Rumours, this 1987 effort was inevitably regarded as something of a letdown. That's too bad, since it's an underrated set that contains plenty of inventively catchy tunes, with a quirky sonic edge that gives the songs added sonic and emotional depth. Lindsey Buckingham's eccentric, vaguely menacing "Big Love" is a standout, as is Christine McVie's brightly bittersweet "Little Lies", along with such dark-horse winners as "Seven Wonders", "Caroline", "Mystified", and Stevie Nicks's typically mystical "Welcome to the Room ... Sara". --Scott Schinder

Customer Reviews

Music to suit all tastes...
This was the first Fleetwood Mac album I ever heard as a child, and I instantly loved all the songs on it. Some I didn't really understand untill I was older but I still like this ablum best. So I was shocked when I got hold of 'Rumours' and hated most of the song's on it. So I guess each album is different, enticing different people with different music tastes. Always try to hear the music before buying, that way you wont be dissappointed.

Tango til You're Sore...
Fleetwood Mac are a group frequently associated with great stylistic leaps, but a close analysis of their work does not strictly bear this theory out. Sure, the early blues material is a world away from Stevie Nicks, but there is a path that one can use to connect the dots. Moving from the blues influences, taking them into an American soft-rock style, they arguably never changed over the course of the 70s, just got better at what they did.

By the 80s, personnel problems had slowed the band's out-put significantly (and for a band with a history of personnel problems like Fleetwood Mac, that's really saying something!) and they only released two albums during the decade; 'Mirage' and 'Tango in the Night'. Strangely, both of these albums are compromised, but in very different ways. 'Mirage' can easily be viewed as an attempt by the band to claw back some of the ground they lost commercially after 'Tusk', smoothing out the edges to such a point where several tracks verge on sounding bland. 'Tango', however, is a compromise in that it was not even meant to be a Fleetwood Mac album...

Lindsey Buckingham revealed a strong appreciation for new wave music in some of 'Tusk's' more idiosynchratic moments, and those experiments come to fruition on 'Tango in the Night'. Even though the sound has dated considerably, it is still possible to appreciate that 'Tango' is a thouroughly "modern" album. There is a sheen to the sound that keeps it fresh and crisp, synthesisers are used through-out the album, but are never too prominent, and many of the melodies have a distinctly new wave feel to them, and are far removed from the 'Californian' tendencies of the earlier Bukingham/Nicks era Fleetwood Mac. This is a modern 80s album, and is everything that implies.

Songwise, Buckingham and Christine McVie emerge with the strongest contributions, both penning songs and arrangements that are ideally suited to this new, modern Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham's songs are by turns dark and whimsical, retaining a melodic playfulness, as well as a harder edged sense of melodrama, several songs building to quite a dramatic climax (the title track being a prime example of this). McVie occupies the role of the pop writer on the album, providing material like 'Everywhere' and the timeless 'Little Lies'. However, she also gives us 'Isn't it Midnight', which really is the closest Fleetwood Mac ever came to possessing a new wave sound, with some scorching guitar work at the end from Buckingham.

Stevie Nicks, being largely absent from the recording due to personal problems and solo commitments, contributes a mixed bag of songs. Whilst 'Seven Wonders' is one of the best singles she ever wrote for the band, 'Welcome to the Room, Sara' is a bit too whimsical to be entirely successful, and probably would have been more at home on a Stevie Nicks solo album. 'When I See You Again', a slow ballad, is one of the worst things the Nicks/Buckingham era Fleetwood Mac ever recorded. Stevie's voice struggles the whole way through it, attempting to convey emotional intesity, but sounding like a cheese-grater has been rubbed accross her vocal chords, whilst the song takes a long time to make it's point, leaving not much of an impression by either melody or lyrics.

Given the time of it's recording, and the production techniques used, this is probably one of the albums where Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are least prominent. McVie's bass in particular is pulled way back in the mix and possesses none of the 'fatness' on display in songs like 'Dreams' or 'The Chain'. However, his sense of melodic invention is still apparent, greatly enhancing tunes like 'Everywhere'. Fleetwood's drums are also a little less unbridled than the used to be, gaining a tight, metronomic power that is appropriate for the songs. Although he does still get the chance to go a bit mad on 'Caroline'.

This is an underatted album, primarily because it doesen't fit into any easily accepted notion of what Fleetwood Mac are about. It is not a rock album, and it is not a singer-songwriter album. It is a pop album, but - perhaps crucially - it is a Lindsey Buckingham album, played by Fleetwood Mac. Which probably explains why so few of his 'actual' solo albums have been as artistically satisfying.

"Long distance winners..."
This is one of those albums that seems to devide the fans: You either love it, or hate it, or, for some, it grows on you over time...
Personally, I've loved it from the moment I first heard it, and there is not one 'bad' track on the entire album.

As another reviewer, Malcolm Lennox, has said, this is not like any of their previous albums, but when was a Fleetwood Mac album ever the same as its predecessors? (their sound has evolved with every album right from their beginnings in 1968).
"Tango in the Night" is its own animal, and very much a reflection of its time.

As "Rumours" was a reflection of disintegrating relationships, "Tusk" the sound of experimentalism and trying to follow a legend, and "Mirage" a reunion of artists who had tasted the solo scene (some more successfully than others), "Tango in the Night" was produced when its lead guitarist/singer wanted to go his own way, its keyboard player/singer had found a new writing partner and embraced the catchy pop lyric, and their most iconic singer was recovering from three solo albums & tours, and a spell in rehab.


The album opens with surely one of Lindsey's most famous songs: 'BIG LOVE'.
He follows this with 'CAROLINE', written about his then girlfriend.
The title track 'TANGO IN THE NIGHT' ~ what an addictive solo!
'FAMILY MAN' (I don't understand it the meaning, but I like it).
And he closes the album with 'YOU AND I, PART II'

Christine contributes:
The wonderfully catchy 'EVERYWHERE', with the lovely harmonies.
The beautiful 'MYSTIFIED'.
'LITTLE LIES' {frequently wrongly referred to as 'tell me lies' or 'sweet little lies'}.
And the rocker 'ISN'T IT MIDNIGHT'. There is an excellent `alternative' version on '25 Years - The Chain" boxed set, or try to get the 1987 live version.

Stevie's songs are very much in the style of her then solo work.
'SEVEN WONDERS' (actually written by Sandy Stewart - Stevie only has a co-credit because she misheard the original lyrics, and as such ad-libbed)
'WELCOME TO THE ROOM... SARA' could easily have come from her solo album "Rock A Little"
'WHEN I SEE YOU AGAIN' is a beautifully sad song.
A lot of people say Stevie's input wasn't worth it. Because of her time in rehab (to kick the cocaine), Stevie couldn't contribute fully, and as such her harmonies are missing from many songs, and some of her own had to be edited and tweaked by Lindsey (this may explain the repetitiveness of some lyrics).

But this always was and always will be a great album, and is certainly 'Classic Fleetwood Mac'.